"Loisette is a graduate of Stanford University,” reads the author bio for Red Willow Brew (CrossroadsPub.com), an e-book released last year. “Loisette has always sought the summit of literary landscapes.”
Indeed, the book is an ambitious concoction: one part love story, one part history lesson and one part “heads-up to the threat of nuclear terrorism,” according to the publisher. But despite the odd fusion and the faux-French pen name, Loisette is not as weird as one might expect. “She” is Lois and Jon Foyt, who married during college. Jon, a communication major, stayed on at Stanford to earn an MBA; Lois stopped out for two decades before finishing her degree in political science in 1979.
After building careers in Manhattan—Lois in real estate, Jon in international banking—the Foyts started writing together in 1993. Now living in Santa Fe, N.M., the pair has penned six novels, a screenplay and a short story. They used their real names before switching to fanciful pseudonyms. (One novel, Four Corners, was by “Ruth Clapsaddle-Counts.”) “We got tired of people saying, ‘How in the devil do you write together?’ so we assumed pen names,” explains Lois.
Well, how in the devil do they write together?
“It’s a collaborative process, a what-do-you-think-of process,” Lois says. She usually paces behind Jon, approving (or rejecting) his word choice as he types out the character descriptions and plot twists, which they discuss in detail before starting to write. “We challenge each other with ideas, and then we both decide, ‘Yes, that’s a go!’”
Joint writing, says Lois, is more common than people realize. “All you have to do is go to the movies and watch the credits to see what kind of collaboration takes place.” The Foyts themselves may turn up in film credits soon, since they’ve taken an interest in turning their novels into screenplays. In any event, they plan to keep writing—together.
VAUHINI VARA, ’04
